Librarians and the One Campaign

In the tradition that I started yesterday of talking about two cool but completely unrelated things, I wanted to talk today about librarians and the One campaign.

Librarians: Most professional librarians are required to get at least a masters in Library Science. They have tons of training about classifying things, finding data, organizing information, and using modern electronic resources efficiently. Librarians are capable of much more than just telling you which floor the periodicals are on, or checking out your books. If you're doing a research project, consider getting their advice on where to look.

The One Campaign is an effort to raise awareness about worldwide issues in poverty. One of the things I really like about this campaign is that it isn't just about fundraising, it's also about political awareness. You may be a poor student (like me), so helping financially is difficult. But you probably have time to send an email to your congressman saying that you care about these issues. Also, it's really quick - you can show that this is something you care about even from the comfort of your computer in between classes. The One campaign makes it easy by sending you emails (fairly infrequently) when an important meeting or bill is coming up, and asks you to send an email to your representative saying you support it. (They pre-write a letter, so signing and sending only requires a couple clicks on their website.) They also do rallies and concerts and things, but it just seemed like a cool way to get people involved, and unique compared to other programs. The campaign is known as Make Poverty History in England, which is where I first heard about it. They also have some of the most moving short videos on this topic I've seen. "Toddlers" and "Orphans of Nkandla" are really good, but sad. "Orange" is clever. "Drop the Debt" is really cool, and well done. "Nelson Mandela" is a good clip of a speech he gave, and I was there when he gave that speech in Trafalgar Square.